Obama Moved For Broad Domestic Surveillance Early

Privacy: President Obama, who campaigned against George W. Bush's surveillance policies, bolstered the National Security Agency's domestic spying powers astoundingly early in his presidency. Was it really to protect us?

In 2007, presidential candidate Barack Obama touted himself as the savior who would reverse what he depicted as an unconstitutional spy state.

Obama promised "no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens" who merely protest a war.

The pre-presidency Obama charged that the Bush administration "acts like violating civil liberties is the way to enhance our security." But it didn't take long at all for the new president to learn to love the Bush surveillance practices so much that he put them on steroids.

It's a clever touch that the power grab came in the form of explanatory material for the FISA Court that was named NSA "minimization procedures."

Some "minimization." NSA "personnel will exercise reasonable judgment" (whatever that is), one document signed by Holder says, "and will destroy inadvertently acquired communications of or concerning a United States person at the earliest practicable point in the processing cycle" — while such communications "may be retained no longer than five years."

As the Guardian notes, it is the NSA — meaning, for all practical purposes, the Obama administration — that decides "who is actually targeted ... without recourse to courts or superiors," although some decisions get "reviewed by internal audit teams on a regular basis."

So the administration can store and hold U.S. citizens' private communications for five years if, in its judgment, they contain intelligence, information on criminality, a threat of harm, are found to be encrypted, or might be cybersecurity relevant. Even attorney-client communications can be seized if they might contain intel. Is this not "to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime"?

This is an administration whose IRS harasses political opponents, and whose attorney general spies on reporters. It can't expect us to believe it embraced broad domestic surveillance powers — against Obama's fervent campaign stances — for purposes of national security.

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